By Khaled Maalej, CEO, VSORA

Semiconductor Industry Innovation Steams Ahead in 2023

Khalid Maalej

Due to a combination of events, the technology equity market suffered a steep drop in 2022. Some of those events were unrelated, including the COVID pandemic and the war in Ukraine. Others were triggered by policy decisions such as containment of China by the U.S. that disrupted the semiconductor supply chain and unbalanced the production of chips.

While I think the technology stock market hit bottom, predicting the market for the year ahead is like reading the future from tea leaves. Still, early signs indicate that the Chip Act approved by the U.S. congress and signed into law by President Biden is prompting the private industry to invest heavily in semiconductors. One obvious example is the construction of new fabs in U.S. and Europe. All considered, I predict that the stock market in 2023 will see an inversion and begin to rise again, more likely in the second half of the year.

Read the rest of EDACafe Industry Predictions for 2023 – VSORA

By Bob Smith, Executive Director, ESD Alliance

Bob Smith

2023 promises to accelerate the changes already occurring in the post-pandemic semiconductor industry. Much of this is being driven by the shakeup of the global supply chain due to supply shortages and geo-political issues. As a result, many regions and countries are now committed to investing in their own domestic semiconductor capabilities.

The U.S. CHIPS Act, for example, should begin to roll out in 2023 to help accelerate innovation and manufacturing capability in the U.S. This is in addition to the private investments being made by leading semiconductor manufacturers to build significant new factories in the U.S. This represents a fundamental shift in thinking from the status quo of reliance on overseas manufacturing and offshore design centers.

As of 2021, the U.S. remains dominant in semiconductor design, but there are growing concerns that this may not be sustainable. Underlying both the investments being made in building domestic manufacturing plants and maintaining or increasing design activity is the critical need for building a workforce to support these activities.

Read the rest of Changes Post-Pandemic to the Semiconductor Industry in 2023 – ESD Alliance

By Michiel Ligthart, President and COO, Verific Design Automation

2023 Will be the Year of Bespoke EDA

Michiel Ligthart 

If 2022 was the year of bespoke silicon, formerly known as custom silicon, then it naturally follows that 2023 will be the year of bespoke EDA (electronic design automation). And like bespoke silicon, bespoke EDA is not a one size fits all methodology.

Bespoke silicon relies on bespoke EDA, a fine-tuned and tailored design flow that starts at the register transfer level (RTL) where tweaks can be made to improve the quality of a bespoken silicon design. Enhancing the flow at design entry and in-house EDA tools using domain knowledge is attractive to engineering groups because it offers them the ability to support a wide varieties of design styles as well as standards such as SystemVerilog, VHDL, UVM, UPF, and encryption. Without standards to move design content through different EDA tools, bespoke EDA would be impractical and impossible to implement. One productive advantage of bespoke EDA: Engineers need only one API for SystemVerilog and VHDL thanks to its building blocks.

Examples of bespoke EDA implementations are elusive, even though it’s common knowledge that silicon design teams are popularizing it. Then again, it’s a competitive distinction not shared outside of silicon design groups. Some educated guesses could be low-power design, design for test circuitry, intellectual property (IP) customization, and debug functionality.

Read the rest of EDACafe Industry Predictions 2023 – Verific

By Sanjay Bali, VP of Strategy and Product Management, Synopsys EDA Group

2022 was a big year for the electronics industry. From the continued growth of AI (both in end devices and in chip design itself) to the emergence of more ways to design in the cloud, the level of innovation we saw was impressive. And it was necessary, as we experienced how complex semiconductors have become, with engineers striving to meet the progressively challenging task of optimizing power, performance, and area (PPA) in chips with as many as trillions of transistors.

In addition to systemic and scale complexity, a variety of other challenges were laid bare, from cyclical swings in product demand to a shrinking pool of engineering talent to the growing impact of all this energy consumption on our planet. Given this backdrop, what might 2023 bring to this increasingly vital industry?

For decades we have seen how engineering ingenuity has persevered to extend Moore’s law and extract more computing power from a single chip—in spite of the limitations of physics. To create products like autonomous cars and advanced robotics. Ahead of us, we see the market demanding more sophisticated features from chip technologies that power our world.

In 2023, we can expect to see these trends continue to unfold, with a few emerging technologies taking hold to further shape the industry. Read on to learn about three key technologies that are poised to transform electronic design.

Read the rest of EDACafe Industry Predictions for 2023 – Synopsys